A gorgeous winter sunrise is captured in The Giant.

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

“This is a very special photography concept I would like to share with you as the photographer has dedicated many days and hundreds of hours to create TimeBlend Dubai,” says Iman Kasem, Art Director, Zimzy Gallery Dubai, referring to the exhibition of the same name (Aug. 1 – Sept. 18).

She is talking about a display of photographs in the gallery by Florian Kriechbaumer, business executive and photographer originally from Germany, who calls the UAE his home after having lived in Dubai for over fifteen years.

Timeblend Dubai is a series of fourteen images by Kriechbaumer, rooted in the desire to extend the beauty of the medium of photography. In going beyond what a traditional photograph captures — the single fleeting split second that will never appear the same way again — it pushes the boundaries by extending this moment into hours and days. 

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Using digital blending techniques to combine photos of the same location taken at different times of the day into a single continuous transition, the project intends to let the viewer’s eye wander through the changes in scenery, as day and night flow into each other in ways that normally may not have been apparent.

  Everything lined up perfectly for New Districts.

The photos in the series are the outcome of many hours of scouting locations, shooting, editing, re-shooting, re-editing, printing and finally, finding ways to bring the outcome to as many people as possible.  In New Districts , over 250 high rise buildings, all constructed in the last fifteen years or so, line up along what is generally said to be the world’s largest man-made marina. “Everything lined up perfectly for this Timeblend, with patchy clouds in the morning, a perfect sunset in between the buildings in the centre, and a clear evening,” says Kriechbaumer. The work received a Silver Award at the 2020 Epson Panorama Awards. About From The Roof, Kriechbaumer says: “It is undeniable that some of Dubai’s appeal is the views of its glorious architecture, especially from above.

“The city’s many rooftops make for such vantage points, in this case providing a panoramic outlook over the Business Bay and Downtown cityscape, with the canal in front stretching all the way to the sea on the left and right, essentially making a large part of the city an island. “A clear day to the east was followed by an orange glowing sunset to the west and a cloudless night over the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, in the centre.” When people think of the UAE, they perhaps often only see glitzy cityscapes and sandy deserts — rarely are mountain landscapes the first thing on their minds. However, the country is home t o beautiful rock formations in the Hajar mountain range, lined with wadis carrying water in the rainy season and sprouting greenery to the left and right of the valleys.

A bird's eye view of Dubai Skyline.

Wadi Shawkah is definitely one of the most beautiful of such areas, captured in Wadi Scenery, as the sun illuminates the mountains in different earth tones, and the stars rise to the right on a moonless night after sunset. Overshadowing all other buildings in Dubai — or the globe for that matter — is Burj Khalifa, at 828m the world’s tallest free standing structure, since its opening in 2010. A timeblend of several photos before and after a gorgeous winter sunrise and titled The Giant, provides a view of the Downtown Dubai area in which the tower is located, with the city’s lifeline, Sheikh Zayed Road, as well as the Dubai Metro, running across the frame in front.

Colloquially referred to as “Tallest Block on the Planet,” a row of towers in Dubai Marina provides impressive view into the sky, with the highest of the lot, Princess Tower, reaching a record-breaking 413m, making it the title holder of the world’s tallest residential building for several years. A fisheye perspective provides a vertical look at the skyscrapers as their apartments slowly light up into the evening hours and the street lights turn on after sunset, in the work titled The Canyon.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that it is only when you see several hours compressed into a few seconds, that humans can really grasp the change in light and colours that occur during a 24-hour period — and timelapse is the perfect medium to make this possible. But what if you could capture the same change in a single photo? This is the question the photographer asked himself in early 2020.

The UAE and Dubai is one of the most photogenic places on earth, with incredible architecture, contrasting and diverse cityscapes, and the natural beauty of the desert. Naturally, this was the place to apply the idea of capturing an entire day in a single photo.  Kriechbaumer’s work has been acquired and published by organisations such as CNN, eSquire, Expedia and The National, among others. Timeblend Dubai is his latest body of work, spanning several months of photography throughout 2020 in Dubai and its surroundings.